IFA 2012: Sony overview

Sony Xperia T hands-on

The Xperia T is Sony's latest global flagship, so there's a lot riding on it. With this new iteration of the Xperia line, Sony has gone back to the Xperia arc design with the curved back.

The back is made of a matte material that is excellent at concealing fingerprints. Actually, all the Xperias use this material for their back.

Anyway, the centerpiece of the back is the 13MP camera, which uses F/2.4 aperture and an Exmor-R sensor. It has a pulse LED flash, though we didn’t have time to try that out. The camcorder shoots 1080p video. There's also a 1.3MP/720p camera on the front.

Sony Xperia T live photos

Speaking of the front, the screen is a beautiful 4.55" HD Reality display backed by Mobile Bravia engine. It has 720p resolution and shatter-proof, scratch-resistant glass. Viewing angles are pretty good, though when we compared the Xperia T to the Xperia P, the P won out in viewing angles.

The Android buttons have been moved to the screen, following Google's lead.

The Sony Xperia T uses a microSIM card and you can expand its 16GB of built-in memory using the microSD card slot. Both slots are hidden under a single plastic flap, reminiscent of the Motorola RAZR setup.

The phone comes with a Walkman app and features like Clear audio, clear bass and headphone surround sound.

The latest music player from Sony • The loudspeaker

Camera samples

We've managed to give the 13 MP snapper on the Sony Xperia T a try and here go the results. At this point they don't tell us all that much about the camera because the lighting was far from perfect and the smartphone's software isn't finalized.

Still, the market release of the Sony Xperia T isn't that far away, so we doubt the image quality will change too dramatically. Here go the samples.

Sony Xperia T camera samples

Sony Xperia TX hands-on

The Sony Xperia TX is outwardly similar to the Xperia T, though there are a couple of important distinctions. The first thing we noticed is that the TX is thinner - 8.6mm vs. 9.4mm.

Of course, that's for their thinnest parts, which in the middle of the phone. The curved back of the Xperia TX also felt "curvier" than the one on the T, likely due to it being thinner.

The phone is also lighter and a smidge taller and wider, though that's hard to notice even when you hold both phones in your hands.

Sony Xperia TX live photos

Anyway, you still get the 4.55" 720p Reality display on the front and the 13MP/1080p camera on the back. The Xperia TX will be available in Black and White, though the Grey version has given way to a Pink one (which feels a little different to the touch).

Xperia TX in silver

Another difference between the Sony Xperia TX and the Xperia T is that the TX comes only in HSPA+ version although it still uses the Qualcomm S4 SoC with two 1.5 GHz Krait cores coupled with the Adreno 225 GPU.

Xperia TX launcher and phone info

Camera samples

We were able snap a few camera samples with the Xperia TX in the Sony booth. Take a look: